What was once a circular or subcircular enclosure, roughly 21 metres east to west and 19 metres north to south, can still be traced by the remnants of a bank running from the north-east, around through the south, and back towards the north-west. Where the bank has not survived, the boundary is marked by a scarp, ground that has been, at some point, levelled or straightened off rather than left to decay naturally. The result is a site that asks something of the eye.

A rath, to use the Irish term that gives this type of monument its other name, was a roughly circular earthwork enclosure typically used as a farmstead during the early medieval period, from around the fifth to the twelfth century. They are common across Ireland, with tens of thousands recorded, yet each one represents a particular family or community who chose a particular piece of ground. At Lissananny, the choice was this small rise in the landscape. Within the interior, there is a possible souterrain, an underground stone-lined passage or chamber that in ringfort contexts typically served for storage or concealment. Its presence here is noted tentatively rather than confirmed, but it adds a layer of quiet interest to a site that might otherwise read simply as a low mound in a field.